While the Orono girls basketball (OGB) team members work out individually all year round, Dec. 3 marked the official start and first game of the 2013-2014 season. This year, the girls and their coaches have extremely high expectations and anticipate going to state.

“I expect nothing less than a trip to state. We look great so far, winning all of our games in the preseason, and we started off strong in the preseason Hamline tournament,” freshman Tori Andrew said.

This year, the team consists of 22 players, composed of one eighth grader, three freshmen, nine sophomores, seven juniors and two seniors.

“We did not graduate any seniors last year, so we have the same team returning, along with a few new players,” senior captain Shelby Earley said.

One new aspect to the team this year  is that due to the lack of freshmen players, there is no C-team. The girls will all play on one large team, however, they will still play separate varsity and junior varsity games.

“While there have been a couple of changes from last year’s season to this year’s, I think the biggest one is having everyone on one team,” junior captain Lydia Farmer said. “At first I thought it was going to be pretty overwhelming, but it has really brought us all even closer together and made our team that much stronger.”

Ellen Wiese, the team’s head coach, has been really impressed with the team’s dedication this year and is excited to see where their effort brings them.

“This season we have an extremely dedicated and committed group of players which absolutely thrills me, especially since the team is so young, consisting of a large amount of underclassmen,” Wiese said.

The girls have been practicing for the 2013-2014 season since the moment last year’s season ended in hopes that their effort would bring them to state.

“The season never really ends. We do conditioning in the spring, summer and fall and we also have games on Sundays during the summer and fall. In addition to this, we have open gym twice a week during June and July,” Farmer said. “You really have to give 100 percent to the team.”

While they were concerned in the beginning, due to lack of senior players, head coach Wiese and assistant coaches Amanda Neby and Lawrence Barnes are very impressed by the progress the girls have made this year and are excited to see how the season plays out.

“I think we have a really great year ahead of us. We’ve got a ton of talent on the team and we all have more experience now,” Farmer said. “We’ve also been playing together for a while so our team chemistry is really strong. If we play together as a team this season, I think we will be very successful.”

“As far as team goals go, we are aiming to win the Wright County Conference and go to state,” Wiese said.